Phobos As Pit Stop In Manned Mars Exploration

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Phobos As First Pit Stop In Manned Mars Exploration

Phobos — the enigmatic, oddly-shaped Martian moon — could serve as an eventual pit stop for human missions to the Red Planet.

That’s, of course, contingent on future Mars exploration strategies. But even with a diameter of less than 30 kms at its widest, the tiny moon could still offer humans some orbital shielding from galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and respite from a more costly and potentially risky actual manned Mars surface landing.

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[-Night_hawk-]

We would need to invent a viable solution to the asteroid problem....we have an atmosphere thicker than the rest, hence those planets are pitted a lot from the attack for the space rock...we could regularly have problems wit this, damaging or destroying our bases with catastrophic impacts...and in the case of phobos, its only 30 across, so any small rock could be a global killer.....

Planetary lazer turrets anyone??

[Waspie_Dwarf]

We would need to invent a viable solution to the asteroid problem....

You are massively over estimating this as a threat.

we have an atmosphere thicker than the rest

Which offers us protection from micrometeorites and smallish asteroids but not from large impactors.

hence those planets are pitted a lot from the attack for the space rock...

Wrong.

It is the lack of weather and surface geological activity such as plate tectonics and volcanism that is the reason these worlds are pitted. It is not that the Earth is hit less, it is just that the evidence is removed in relatively (geologically speaking) short time. Many of the craters on these worlds are many hundreds of millions of years old (some lunar craters are believed to be more than two billion years old.

Take a look at images of the four Gallilean Moons of Jupiter. Ganymead and Callisto are heavily pockmarked with impact craters. Io and Europa are not. None of these moons have appreciable atmospheres, but Io and Europa have surface activity which eradicates the craters.

Impacts were much more common in the early solar system, so those craters represent a historical threat more than they do a current one.

we could regularly have problems wit this, damaging or destroying our bases with catastrophic impacts...

Meteorites present a treat every where in the solar system, including Earth, but they are not the biggest threat to survival on other worlds. Radiation and micrometeorites present a far more realistic threat.

and in the case of phobos, its only 30 across

30 what across? It's dimensions are 27 × 22 × 18 km (16,8 x 13.7 x 11.2 miles)

so any small rock could be a global killer.....

The fact it is so small means that it has a negligible gravitational attraction, reducing the chances of it being hit.

Planetary lazer turrets anyone??

I don't usually correct spellings, but lazer particularly annoys me. Laser is not a word, it is an acronym. It stands for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation and so it is totally incorrect to spell it with a Z.

[-Night_hawk-]

:-l....ok, I hear you...

The only thing in that case which I have to say is that the article says less than 30km at widest point, so should be close to thirty, otherwise they would say less than 25km.....maybe?...

[Waspie_Dwarf]

:-l....ok, I hear you...

The only thing in that case which I have to say is that the article says less than 30km at widest point, so should be close to thirty, otherwise they would say less than 25km.....maybe?...

My point was that you can't just say something is 30 across. Maybe it was a typo on your part, but without units that is meaningless. With out units you could mean that it is 30 light years across, 30 millimetres across or even 30 red pandas across.

Edited July 4, 2013 by Waspie_Dwarf